Google Earth, the survival tool of war-torn Iraq

By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad

12:01AM GMT 15 Feb 2007

Iraqis are using maps adapted from Google Earth satellite images to help navigate the sectarian neighbourhoods of Baghdad.

After The Daily Telegraph revealed that Shia terrorists in southern Iraq had been using the internet company's aerial photographs to pinpoint British bases, it has emerged that Google Earth images of the capital are being transferred from the internet to CDs and sold or passed among locals.

The information is also being annotated to identify trouble spots and the religious allegiance of districts with notes superimposed over the maps warning of such perils as a "battle area" or a mosque used by insurgents or militias prone to kill or kidnap.

A Shia militiaman said that the maps could be helpful in identifying how close a mortar-launching site needed to be in order to strike a Sunni community. But other residents said that they use them to plot routes around danger spots, choose variations on their usual journey to work or even target areas inhabited by members of rival sects.

The lack of paper maps, which were banned under Saddam Hussein for fear of foreign invasion, makes Google Earth all the more valuable to Iraqis today.

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Hussein Ama, 22, plots his way from his home to Baghdad University each morning using Google Earth. The shifting threat of violence means he never travels the same road on three consecutive days.

"If there are reports of fighting, I consult Google Earth to try to find a new way," he said. "As I am a Shia I have to avoid roads with Sunni mosques. If there is a checkpoint outside, it is likely that I would be kidnapped and my throat cut." A taxi driver, Mohammad Sami, said he had other considerations when he consulted online maps. "I use the maps to find the connecting roads so that if I am stuck in a traffic jam and there is trouble I can get away," he said.

Google Earth is also emerging as the only way to see much of the city which is off- limits because of security threats to the Iraqi government and the American-led coalition. Many buildings and streets are hidden now behind high blast barriers.

This benign voyeurism is twisted to more malevolent purposes by some residents.

Salim al-Saidi, 23, is a computer expert working for the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Madhi army, a Shia sectarian force responsible for "cleansing" several Baghdad districts of Sunni families.

He claimed Google Earth showed him the Sunni village of al-Girthana was three miles from a mortar launching site. He said: "We couldn't figure it out by going there. We'd be killed in the village.

"Since we found out we fired mortars and rockets at the village each day."

A spokesman for Google said: "The imagery in Google Earth is not real-time nor is it unique. Google Earth is intended for people who want to explore maps online for enjoyment."

US commanders yesterday claimed that Moqtada al-Sadr recently left the country for Iran just before security forces launched an operation to quash violence in Baghdad. His aides denied it, saying he was in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

In Washington, the State Department said it would accept up to 7,000 Iraqi refugees a year after America faced criticism for taking in fewer than 500 since 2003.